Patriarch of the Syriac Catholics His Beatitude Ignatius Younan III calls for the end of sanctions against Syrian citizens

Having closely followed the EU policy toward Syria, His Beatitude Ignatius Younan III, Patriarch of the Syriac Catholics, expressed hope to soon see an end to the sanctions causing such suffering to the Syrian citizens who at the moment completely depend on Catholic charitable organizations for theirevery need.

He addressed in Brussels a group of 30 representatives of European NGOs gathered to hear about the situation of Christians in Syria and Iraq after the departure of Daesh.

In the meeting co-hosted by Aid to the Church in Need and the Commission of European Bishops’ Conferences (COMECE), Patriarch Younan asked the participants, all witnesses to close to six years of war in Syria, to help his people “to be free of the three “Ps”: paternalism, pandering and profiteering” as he believes Syriac Catholics have been victimized for a long time by external forces. “We have been a loyal community serving the country where we were born, fully endowed citizens. We are the indigenous population”, said His Beatitude, “but because we do not have our own militias or territorial ambitions everyone thinks we agree with everything or we are easy to overrun. For us it is a matter of survival. If it was not for the Church organizations such as Aid to the Church in Need we would be about to disappear”.

Patriarch Younan was accompanied by Archbishop Antoine Chahda of Aleppo, who described the situation in the city these days. “No more missiles, and it is quiet, but that does not mean the war is over.

Both Church leaders insisted for an end to the economic sanctions, and asked the help of the NGOs present to remind the EU authorities that the high-level politicians do not suffer the consequences, but the thousands of orphans and widows that this war has left do.